I haven't seen enough of the Swans this year to be sure about who we need where on the ground for matchups.

I can't imagine there being too many changes. Stevens for Webster is obvious. Like the rest of you, I have seen very little of Stevens, but it is possible that he can play in the backline.

If not, then Minchington could be dropped and Gresham used continually as a small forward (which is where I think he goes best anyway). And then either McKenzie or Savage could fill Webster's role. It's a toss up for mine: McKenzie would perhaps bring a bit more pace and flair, while Savage is match-hardened and (mostly) a good kick. I reckon given that the Swans are a very tough side, the club might go with Savage.

McCartin's return to the top grade is pending, but - unless Riewoldt is truly unable to play (and I don't believe that's the case) - I'd be inclined to leave McCartin at Sandringham for one more week. and - unless Bruce has a cracker against the Swans - bring him in for Bruce against the Dogs.

I can't see how Dunstan can be dropped. The Swans are the sort of team we need to get on top of in the middle.

Stevens played a lot off HB with the Bulldogs or we push Newnes back and Koby goes through the middle.

Like!

Stevens gets into the contested ball like a hungry fox terrier.He will give those Swans forwards many a headacheand make Longmire pull his hair out

Summertime just means lots of sunburn, lots of pain.Long wait till footy season, when the pain of sunburn is replaced by the pain of missed opportunities, missed shots at goal,mistakes under pressure...

What was it last week? Fourteen marks and nine shots at goal, admittedly at a lesser level.

Guess there's nothing wrong with making a kid earn a spot through weight of goals.

If he keeps it up we're going to have to find a spot for him, though, probably full forward.

I really can't see the point of getting carried away about McCartin. He only kicked four goals on Sunday and two the week before. Six goals in two games isn't a particularly noteworthy haul even at AFL level.

I agree that he should get another game in the AFL team soon, and believe he will do so in the next month. But we've won 5 out of the last 6 games. It's never easy for a fringe player to crack into a team when they are on a winning streak.

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift

My kids arnt allowed to use ipads and alike.This may be why i dont take them anywhere - because they are a nightmare![/quote]

That will change. You can't and shouldn't avoid iPads/smart phones etc - they are a necessary evil. My kids have to do some of their homework on iPads - makes it tricky at bedtime!

As for your kids being a nightmare- that's just the programming they all have. If they were all well behaved and not half their life feral imagine how overpopulated the world would be?![/quote]

I absolutely agree. I dont want to hold them back - I imagine school will force my hand - I better get used to it. The kinder one has a small amount of access to the ipad at kinder but never at home. the 3yr will need to bide her time.

one day they will be old enough to navigate themselves to here.. I will not know there user name. This is a very scary thought!

The Tiger and the Lion may be more powerful, but the Wolf does not perform in the circus.

What was it last week? Fourteen marks and nine shots at goal, admittedly at a lesser level.

Guess there's nothing wrong with making a kid earn a spot through weight of goals.

If he keeps it up we're going to have to find a spot for him, though, probably full forward.

I really can't see the point of getting carried away about McCartin. He only kicked four goals on Sunday and two the week before. Six goals in two games isn't a particularly noteworthy haul even at AFL level.

I agree that he should get another game in the AFL team soon, and believe he will do so in the next month. But we've won 5 out of the last 6 games. It's never easy for a fringe player to crack into a team when they are on a winning streak.

And seven the week before that, which you neglected to mention.

I understand the logistical problems of getting him in.

There's no problems with he, Bruce and Membrey in the same forward line. We've done that before successfully because Membrey is not strictly a key forward.

But for it to work, Rooey has to play wing or on the ball and I'm not sure he can in his current shape. So in the meantime a No. 1 draft gets to hone his craft in the VFL.

My kids arnt allowed to use ipads and alike.This may be why i dont take them anywhere - because they are a nightmare!

That will change. You can't and shouldn't avoid iPads/smart phones etc - they are a necessary evil. My kids have to do some of their homework on iPads - makes it tricky at bedtime!

As for your kids being a nightmare- that's just the programming they all have. If they were all well behaved and not half their life feral imagine how overpopulated the world would be?!

I absolutely agree. I dont want to hold them back - I imagine school will force my hand - I better get used to it. The kinder one has a small amount of access to the ipad at kinder but never at home. the 3yr will need to bide her time.

one day they will be old enough to navigate themselves to here.. I will not know there user name. This is a very scary thought!

get yourself some decent software and router and you can control what they visit and when they visit it. a must for parents of young kids. all the time and energy we invest in our kids, it's worth investing in a bit of knowledge for ourselves to help raise them in a digital world. keep the ipads away as long as possible. let them learn the physical world first. we grew up playing board games and hide and seek and charades etc with the kids and took them out hiking and sightseeing and such all the time. The drive out was often hell, but the rest of the day great and they'd be knackered for the drive home. all to easy to become slaves to the ease of digital entertainment. Dinally gave them ipods to help them stay in touch with friends when we went on a year long trip round the world. wish i hadn't - they are like crack cocaine.

My kids arnt allowed to use ipads and alike.This may be why i dont take them anywhere - because they are a nightmare!

That will change. You can't and shouldn't avoid iPads/smart phones etc - they are a necessary evil. My kids have to do some of their homework on iPads - makes it tricky at bedtime!

As for your kids being a nightmare- that's just the programming they all have. If they were all well behaved and not half their life feral imagine how overpopulated the world would be?!

I absolutely agree. I dont want to hold them back - I imagine school will force my hand - I better get used to it. The kinder one has a small amount of access to the ipad at kinder but never at home. the 3yr will need to bide her time.

one day they will be old enough to navigate themselves to here.. I will not know there user name. This is a very scary thought!

get yourself some decent software and router and you can control what they visit and when they visit it. a must for parents of young kids. all the time and energy we invest in our kids, it's worth investing in a bit of knowledge for ourselves to help raise them in a digital world. keep the ipads away as long as possible. let them learn the physical world first. we grew up playing board games and hide and seek and charades etc with the kids and took them out hiking and sightseeing and such all the time. The drive out was often hell, but the rest of the day great and they'd be knackered for the drive home. all to easy to become slaves to the ease of digital entertainment. Dinally gave them ipods to help them stay in touch with friends when we went on a year long trip round the world. wish i hadn't - they are like crack cocaine.

That can be a dangerous suggestion DS. All too often such software ends up being used, by the kids, to control what and when their parents can visit. (I remember my nephew, at 18 months, programmed my parents out of their VCR player. Hilarious. )

Matt Finnis CEO wrote:"St Kilda is an iconic part of Melbourne which has an identifiable attitude and spirit that is really aligned with where we want to take the club. It is grounded but it is aspirational, it is eclectic, everyone belongs, and we say how do we capture that as an identity? It would be a good move on so many levels for the club."

My kids arnt allowed to use ipads and alike.This may be why i dont take them anywhere - because they are a nightmare!

That will change. You can't and shouldn't avoid iPads/smart phones etc - they are a necessary evil. My kids have to do some of their homework on iPads - makes it tricky at bedtime!

As for your kids being a nightmare- that's just the programming they all have. If they were all well behaved and not half their life feral imagine how overpopulated the world would be?!

I absolutely agree. I dont want to hold them back - I imagine school will force my hand - I better get used to it. The kinder one has a small amount of access to the ipad at kinder but never at home. the 3yr will need to bide her time.

one day they will be old enough to navigate themselves to here.. I will not know there user name. This is a very scary thought!

get yourself some decent software and router and you can control what they visit and when they visit it. a must for parents of young kids. all the time and energy we invest in our kids, it's worth investing in a bit of knowledge for ourselves to help raise them in a digital world. keep the ipads away as long as possible. let them learn the physical world first. we grew up playing board games and hide and seek and charades etc with the kids and took them out hiking and sightseeing and such all the time. The drive out was often hell, but the rest of the day great and they'd be knackered for the drive home. all to easy to become slaves to the ease of digital entertainment. Dinally gave them ipods to help them stay in touch with friends when we went on a year long trip round the world. wish i hadn't - they are like crack cocaine.

That can be a dangerous suggestion DS. All too often such software ends up being used, by the kids, to control what and when their parents can visit. (I remember my nephew, at 18 months, programmed my parents out of their VCR player. Hilarious. )

uite true dave. my son's school gives all the kids macairs with admin privileges withheld. a quick google search and all the kids simply add a new admin account, use it to give themselves admin privileges, and then delete the new account.

paddy has earned his shot. We reward form. Keeps the team turning and chugging. If we didn't our boys in the twos wouldn't try and we'd end up with no depth/crap bottom six. Paddy is no different. He plays well for a string of matches (four goals clear on top of the vfl goal kicking), he gets a game. He'll have this week and next to prove he deserves it, if he spuds it up, back to the twos.

IN: Mackenzie/Rice (the choice is up to DS), Stevens, and anyone (though preferably Holmes or Lewy P).

Saintsationalists, it seems pretty straight forward to me. Three things affect our results. Two are linked to each other.

- Kicking accuracy when kicking into the forward 50. We tend to have more inside 50s than our enemies. But this is not being reflected on the scoreboard.

- Kicking accuracy when kicking for goal. We tend to have more shots on goal than our enemies. But this is not being reflected on the scoreboard.

- Running players. Look at our losses. The third quarter against the Dreamons, last half of the final quarter against the Cokeheads, last quarter against the Hillbillies. Even, look at the periods when the Wogans threatened to get on top of us.One consistent thing happened. Their running players ran rampant, especially off the half back line.

Now look at our wins (including over the Wogans, when we stopped them from blowing us away). What was different? We played more blokes who can get to contests, and who can keep up with and hence curtail the oppositions' running half backs.

This was all achieved when we replaced Dunstan, Armo' and Paddy with Stevens, Wright and Minch. Also replacing the unlucky Lonie gave both increased strength and speed (Lonie isn't that quick). And Jimmy W is an upgrade on Savage - a much better defender (and that's against big and small opponents), tough as, and I also reckon Jimmy would be quicker that Sav, who ain't slow.

But last week we lost Stevens, replacing him with Dunstan. That slowed the side down a little, but no biggee. However, when we then lost my man Jimmy W early on... suddenly, we've lost a significant amount of run c/f the team that rolled the Wogans. That's why we struggled against tanti-boy's team.

Sure, we got away with it when tanti-boy lost the plot for the last quarter. But going forward, we can't rely on being so lucky if we're playing against a real opponent.

We're already playing with 17 blokes once the ruck has been contested. We cannot then add an unfit Paddy up forward. We also (as has been pointed out continually by the likes of Con) cannot keep playing all of Dunstan, Armo' and Seb in the one mid field. (Even though the latter two aren't as slow as is widely believed.)

Matt Finnis CEO wrote:"St Kilda is an iconic part of Melbourne which has an identifiable attitude and spirit that is really aligned with where we want to take the club. It is grounded but it is aspirational, it is eclectic, everyone belongs, and we say how do we capture that as an identity? It would be a good move on so many levels for the club."

IN: Mackenzie/Rice (the choice is up to DS), Stevens, and anyone (though preferably Holmes or Lewy P).

Saintsationalists, it seems pretty straight forward to me. Three things affect our results. Two are linked to each other.

- Kicking accuracy when kicking into the forward 50. We tend to have more inside 50s than our enemies. But this is not being reflected on the scoreboard.

- Kicking accuracy when kicking for goal. We tend to have more shots on goal than our enemies. But this is not being reflected on the scoreboard.

- Running players. Look at our losses. The third quarter against the Dreamons, last half of the final quarter against the Cokeheads, last quarter against the Hillbillies. Even, look at the periods when the Wogans threatened to get on top of us.One consistent thing happened. Their running players ran rampant, especially off the half back line.

Now look at our wins (including over the Wogans, when we stopped them from blowing us away). What was different? We played more blokes who can get to contests, and who can keep up with and hence curtail the oppositions' running half backs.

This was all achieved when we replaced Dunstan, Armo' and Paddy with Stevens, Wright and Minch. Also replacing the unlucky Lonie gave both increased strength and speed (Lonie isn't that quick). And Jimmy W is an upgrade on Savage - a much better defender (and that's against big and small opponents), tough as, and I also reckon Jimmy would be quicker that Sav, who ain't slow.

But last week we lost Stevens, replacing him with Dunstan. That slowed the side down a little, but no biggee. However, when we then lost my man Jimmy W early on... suddenly, we've lost a significant amount of run c/f the team that rolled the Wogans. That's why we struggled against tanti-boy's team.

Sure, we got away with it when tanti-boy lost the plot for the last quarter. But going forward, we can't rely on being so lucky if we're playing against a real opponent.

We're already playing with 17 blokes once the ruck has been contested. We cannot then add an unfit Paddy up forward. We also (as has been pointed out continually by the likes of Con) cannot keep playing all of Dunstan, Armo' and Seb in the one mid field. (Even though the latter two aren't as slow as is widely believed.)

Thanks Dave, you make some great points. It's a hard read for me though trying to figure out who are the Wogans, Cokeheads and Hillbillys.

You make the point that we play better with more pace, not less pace in the team.

I'm really keen to see Paddy in the team, he brings a lot of assets, but pace ain't one of them. And Longer is slow, and sadly an unfit Riewoldt doesn't help either.

stonecold wrote:Jesus, Gilbert responsible for losing us a flag now, get a grip!!!!!

If our b/f count was tomorrow, he's be running top 5!!!!!

I've watched half of our games live at the ground and half on TV, also watched all games several times on replay and I am certain that Gilbert has been one of our most important players to date.

People have to understand what is actually going on out there, he has stopped plenty of opposition attacking runs this year and has been a most stable link in many of ours and his disposal wouldn't be all too bad either

with a new batch of faith, some luck and we'll see where 09 (now 2015) takes us